RAMALLAH, Feb 20 (JMCC) - The Palestinian faction Fateh seeks to reconcile with its rival Hamas, said a spokesperson for the group Sunday, according to AFP.

In the national interest, the Fatah movement underlines the need to respond to the demands of the Palestinian people to put an end to the division with a view to ending the (Israeli) occupation, Azzam al-Ahmad said in Ramallah.

We are ready to meet the Hamas leadership so that the Egyptian document can be signed, he added, referring to a Cairo-brokered deal that Fatah had already endorsed but Hamas balked at.

The issue of healing the rift between the two factions has come to the fore as Palestinians try to find their political footing after the fall of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's regime and ongoing pro-democracy demonstrations in the Arab world.

A demonstration was held in Ramallah on Thursday calling for an end to a political impasse that physically divides the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with the former governed by the Fateh-based Palestinian Authority and the latter governed by Hamas.

Further demonstrations are being planned, and the Fateh statement seemed gauge to respond to the calls.

But Hamas said last week that the Egyptian document over which Palestinians were negotiating had died with the Mubarak regime that had helped negotiate it.

Mubarak confidante Omar Suleiman had worked closely with Fateh and Hamas to try to overcome their differences.